The European Parliament voted to require the labelling of meat products throughout the EU so we would be able to determine whether or not we were eating ritually slaughtered meat. That democratic decision on behalf of 500 million EU citizens has now been overturned by Ministers, who have cravenly surrendered to a campaign by the Jewish lobbying organisation Shechita UK.

Apparently, if we were allowed to know what we were eating, the economic interests of people who ritually slaughter would suffer (i.e. we'd vote with our consciences, presumably deemed unacceptable). The following text is courtesy of the National Secular Society's Newsline -

European Ministers have dropped plans
to ensure that halal and kosher meat
from animals slaughtered without
pre-stunning is accurately labelled.

Earlier this year MEPs voted in favour
of German MEP Renate Sommer's proposed
amendment to draft legislation on food
labelling which would mean that meat
and meat products from ritually
slaughtered animals must carry the
label "Meat from slaughter without
stunning".

However, the European Council of
Ministers approved a draft of new food
information regulation this week that
did not include amendment 205.

The agreement reached falls short of
demands made by MEPs when they agreed
their position on the directive in
June.

Renate Sommer said that she was
"disappointed" by the agreement,
calling it a "sloppy draft" that
neglected important details.

The latest move to drop the proposal
follows a Europe-wide lobbying
campaign by the Jewish food lobby
group Shechita UK, which has targeted
European Ministers representing their
various governments at the Council of
Ministers.

Electrical pre-stunning is not allowed
under strict Jewish traditions,
whereas the practice is acceptable to
many British Muslims; a significant
proportion of UK Halal meat has been
pre-stunned.

Shechita UK has argued that unless
meat from religiously slaughtered
animals is allowed to slip into the
general market covertly, this meat
will become commercially unviable. The
NSS questioned the legitimacy of the
Government supporting such a stance in
a letter to Jim Paice MP, Minister of
State for Agriculture and Food.

The NSS has been pressing the UK
Government to support the amendment,
arguing that where religious
exemptions have been made to animal
welfare regulations, no more animals
should be slaughtered under the
exemptions than is necessary for the
religious market. Furthermore,
consumers are entitled to be informed
if meat is from an animal slaughtered
without stunning. The current absence
of labelling deprives consumers of
basic information and consequently
artificially fuels the demand for meat
from slaughter without stunning.

In a letter to the NSS just weeks
before the latest move, Jim Paice MP
signalled the UK Government's
intention to oppose the labelling
amendment saying that he had recently
met with Shechita UK to help him
"understand the concerns driving their
opposition to labelling".

Stephen Evans, National Secular
Society Campaigns Officer, said:
"Keeping the public in ignorance so
that they carry on subsidising a
slaughter method which they do not
approve of is simply indefensible.
While we're naturally disappointed
that this amendment has fallen, this
is far from the end of the campaign to
ensure meat from religiously
slaughtered animals is labelled. We
are anticipating European Commission
proposals on welfare labelling in 2011
and we will be ensuring that the
Government is well aware of our views
– which we believe are supported by
the overwhelming majority of the
British public."

Next year, the Government will also be
consulting on the implementation of
regulations on the protection of
animals at the time of killing, which
will provide a further opportunity to
question the exemptions from animal
welfare legislation afforded to
religious groups.

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